CHARLES! 177

Orderis were given by the commons alone *without other authority, that it should be fub->scribed by the whole nation. The protestationWas in itself very inoffensive , even insignificant;and contained nothing btit general declarations *that the subscribers would defend their religionand liberties But it tended to increase thepopular panic, and intimated, what was moreexpressly declared in the preamble, that theseblessings were now exposed to the utmost periLAlarms were every day given of new con*spiracles ** i In Lancashire , great multitudes ofpapists were assembling : Secret meetings wereheld by them in caves and under ground inSurrey: They had entered into a plot to blowup the river with gun * powder, in order todrown the city : Provisions of arms weremaking beyond sea: Sometimes France, sometimesDenmark, was forming designs against the king-dom : And the populace, who are always terrifiedwith present, and enraged with distant dangers»were still farther animated' in their demands ofjustice against the unfortunate Jstfafford.

The king came .to the house of lords: Andthough he expressed his resolution, for which heoffered them any security, never again to employStrafford in any branch of public business; heprofessed himself totally dissatisfied with regard

*' Clarendon, vol. i. p. 4<2. Rush. vol. v. p. 241.Warwick, p. rFo. “ Dugdale, p. L-. Franklyn, p, poi.," Sir Edw. Walker, p. 349.

VOL. IX. N

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LIV.

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